Mk2 Golf Gti 16V ground up rebuild

[Coakers]

Well this a journey that started in April 2016. I've got threads on clubgti and retro rides too so I thought why not add mine here too. I was looking for other VAG sites since the demise of the ED38s website. So here goes, from the top.

I had a 1.8 auto which I adored but eventually wanting to buy a Gti was the next step up. Searching various old haunts saw that there were many 8 valves out there. Never saw many 16valves but the ones I did see were either very well maintained/restored or were on the verge of being scrapped. Guess which I picked...













Questionable wiring.


Much greater horrors lie in wait.

[Coakers]

Discovered thanks to the mk2 owners club that someone had installed a mk1 campaign wheel which is a whopping 380mm which makes steering and finding the brake pedal with a manual rack quite a danger more than anything.


When I got the car it had a rattle at the top end, the rattle eventually turned into a knock (more on that later) I've covered 3500 miles in 6 months. It came off the road with  151,000 miles. I got it for £900 with an mot would you believe. Did manage to have some fun though





Had our one and only breakdown. .

Heater matrix blew up, doing about 80, extremely hot water suddenly peppered me and my girlfriend through the vents. I think she said something along the lines of.. 'pull the f**k over before I get scalded alive' not good.
Managed to pull over without further incident.. Just. What hurt more was having to fork out £140 to the RAC for them to bypass the heater matrix which is a simple thing to do by the way. When I told the Rac guy where we were going he said 'in this??.. Your brave'

[Coakers]

I didn't do much apart from fit from fit period correct small bumpers

(this brings us to around Aug 2016) Looking back now I still have to remind myself why I bought such a neglected scrapper that was destined for to be parted out. The original colour.. Monza blue.



This is the scuttle, I noticed it as soon as the seller lifted the bonnet. He didn't even mention it had been resprayed (awfully) and monza blue just happened to be my favourite mk2 colour so call it fate I ran into this.

[Coakers]

Getting to more recently. Started looking for places to restore her, she's named Ellen by the way (due to the licence plate) planned on doing some of the work myself but lack of time, space and general expertise on such a build made me realise that I was delusional.

Took her to Deutsch Doctors down in Stoke (I'm in St Helens) who were very good and nice guys too. They had a hoard of mk1's and mk2's.





Only issue was distance so had a chance call into somewhere 10mins away. Quest Auto body in Orrell. These guys were high end. Very expensive stuff in there.

Meanwhile I originally wanted the current KR to be rebuilt but something came up in the form of this...





A Mk3 16V ABF engine but I've seen it running a few times because I've followed the owners build thread on cgti, it's had a top end rebuild and the only reason he's changing it out is because he's going with a Vr6t. So I know it's running well. Also I'm able to retain the mechanical fuel injection (k-jet) which is essential for me so it will look completely stock but with about 40-50bhp extra so I'm quite happy


He even threw in an early 7 slat grill with a genuinely very uncommon 16v badge (the word 'rare' just makes me cringe nowadays) for a very good price.

[Coakers]

OK so here is where it starts getting interesting. (Dec 2016) The Strip.

















That's the first part done.

[Coakers]

This is an example of one of the former owners 'handywork' the heatsheild was cut through presumably to get to the dash bolts which were rusted on anyway. Whilst it was being stripped I had a text from the restorer which contained words such as 'deathtrap' and 'accident waiting to happen'. Most bushes were perished, crossmemeber was rusted to the point where the engine mount was not secure. And most bolts on the suspension set up were cross-threaded.

 

The metallic blue car there is a 60s ferrari. But can you guess which the car in the foreground is?



In the meantime while the car was being worked on I continued to collect parts. Most notably the thinner (84-87) side mouldings.




Paint stripping next.











And in etch primer





The wings and bonnet were being replaced, hence why they weren't stripped.

[Coakers]

Mar/Apr 2017

I hope you guys like welding.





































Now onto the other side.























Phew... BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE 

[Coakers]

More welding, It was cheaper and easier to just replace the lower rear valance completely. Also in this updated update is underseal and suspension removal.... joy.





Battery tray, particularly impressed with this one.







This was the only part of the car where the corrosion shocked me. As it was particularly bad and in a crucial structural part of the car.













And suspension/running gear removal.









This was spring 2017.

[Coakers]

And a bit more welding. Nearly done though honest. The fuel filler bracket which has rotted out of 99% of mk2s ever.











Next is to tackle the underseal. Eeesh.





Left this for a bit.

Time for something a bit more exiting.. Colour.

















Very much happiness, however things had to be taken down a notch. I began to do work on my own car to save money and because I wanted to more than anything. I'm definitely not a proficient welder even though I have been practicing so the plan was for them to do all the bodywork, paint it and then I could build it up at home, they were very reluctant to give me a final price to get the car in paint but I always paid on time from the beginning so I believe I was less likely to be scared off so when I asked a few weeks ago how much it would take to get in paint from where it is currently they said around £8k.. just to get it in paint headache headache.

I have put close to that amount into it so far in parts and labour so far so I thought It was unjustifiable. I really believed that I was passed the hard part so that was partly due to my reason of putting on hold.

I chose to put the car in storage in the autumn of 2017. And there it stayed pretty much untouched for around 8 months. I lost my mojo.

[Coakers]

And here she is in storage.



Very sad sight.

I didn't do any work until summer 2018. It was never far from my thoughts and enough was enough. Time to pick myself up.

Started on the running gear at my grandads shed.

Pressed out the wishbone and rear beam bushes with this bearing/seal driver that I've had knocking around for a while.



For the subframe, wishbones etc.










POR 15's metal prep showing in full effect here. You can see the etching effect.



That there is my grandad who was 92 at the time. Pressing in the wheel bearings into g60 hubs. He lives for mechanical engineering in all its forms. Hes built model steam engines, boats, mechanical clocks and maintained the neighbours clocks just for fun.. and that's just in his retirement years! He was also in the Lancashire Fusiliers during WW2, spending 2 years in India during that time.. legend.

My grandad sadly passed away in September 2018 (photo taken in June) He had been a constant source of encouragement and knowledge since I started this build so it has become much more personal to me now that it gets finished.



So this corner of the car will always be his.